Minecraft

Dd is 12 and has discovered Minecraft. I don't have a problem with this per se, but it's all she talks about!

Her time on pc is limited to 2 hrs per day.

Anyone else have a child obsessed with Minecraft? She's only had access for about 2 weeks on the pc, about 7 weeks on her iPod Touch, so I guess it could be the novelty of it. When her friends come round, they play Minecraft together!

I'm considering either reducing the time she's allowed on the pc, or saying she can only go on Minecraft on certain days.

Or should I just accept this is how it is for pre teens/teens these days? I'm 49, so didn't grow up with computer games at all, so maybe can't understand for that reason? She is smart, doing well at school we're told.

I fought your fight last year, and lost. We have come to the negotiated balance of schoolwork, dinner and shower first, then an hour or two on the computer if there's time. Minecraft is good because they skype and chat and even sing with their friends so its not an isolated game. Some nights there's no time because of sports club or stuff so it works out ok. As you say, it does seem to be the way of it with teens and I really don't want to ruin my relationship with my DS by fighting all the time. In the big scheme of things I don't think it's worth fighting over tbh.

It is solitary for her, because dd is playing on her own, single player version. I know there are different ways of playing, but initially she wanted to set up her world. I thought it would be good to keep her away from multi player version to avoid bad language.

Can you tell I haven't a clue what I'm talking about?! I think I need to look into how it works, unless anyone fancies explaining the different options of how to play?

I have just read that article and it's amusing and disturbing in equal measure! Mine are exactly as described.

I have 2 Minecraft addicts and it gets very wearing. If they're not playing it they're talking about it or wanting to watch the Minecraft Crew on YouTube.

I limit the time with electronics but it's still a bit much. DH has adamant they're using their brains, dexterity, chatting, planning stuff and it's far betting than drooling in front of the TV. I'm not a gamer so I really don't get it but it looks like he may have been right!

I'm not a gamer either, so can't understand. Dh hates the poor quality graphics so refuses to get involved. I think I'll cut down her pc time for now. She does have to finish homework first, but I'm just not sure it's healthy that Minecraft is all she's interested in.

My autistic DS just loves Minecraft but I limit him to a maximum of 2 hours a day. It is also an excellent bargaining tool....."want the password.....okay x, y or z needs doing first".

He only ever plays the Creative mode but as he loves Lego this does not surprise me.

I am exploring the idea of signing him up to the Autcraft server which is for autistic users of the game, no zombies and in addition nobody can destroy the creations.....a big issue for some autistic children.

My DD (12) has played Minecraft since one of the first early releases. She's very creative with it. You get things like 'flat grass' which help if they just want to build and not carve out a terrain. I would stay away from servers as people destroy each other's creations and steal stuff.

DH and my two DC are really into it and I did give it a go, mostly to be able to help the kids if they got stuck, but it changed so much and I can't be arsed to keep up.

If you have an iPad or iPod, games like Blockheads, sandbox, junk jack and terraria are similar.

Fantastic, much rather the boychild plays on this than some of the other stuff I've seen. He was obsessed with watching all of this on YouTube! Can't understand it myself looks like some sort of design packages for computers!!

Minecraft is brilliant. Maybe she could do that instead of watching television? It's way better for you. As long as she's balanced in interests, getting school work done and sleeping enough, which I'm sure she is , I wouldn't worry about how much she plays, especially over winter.

DS1 spends most of his time in a Minecraft subset which inhabits Roman Britain. They all have ranks and titles and roles to play. V complicated as far as I can tell, and they have to repel the Picts and Scots etc while building temples, forums, forts...

DS plays on servers with his friends, which is great. I think he also plays on special servers with strangers (Hunger Games for example) but at 13 that's less concerning for us now than it might be for those with younger children. You make your own decisions about that based on your own kids, I think!

I think it's dead cheap, lo-fi, and you can make it as safe as you need.

DS went through a minecraft phase in years 6 and 7. Yes, it makes me travelsick to watch it too. He set up his own server and I was hugely surprised by just how sociable it was and how responsibly he policed it (warning then banning people using bad language or spoiling other people's buildings)and also thought hard about how to delegate building tasks fairly to his mates and negotiate what type of place to build.I am not a gamer either, and I was utterly sick of the background growling of creepers for well nigh on 2 years, but it was obviously more stimulating than watching CITVAnd just pretend that you're interested..learn all the different rocks/mods/how to build....if a 12 year old girl knows you love her enough to be interested in minecraft, who knows what else she'll feel able to share with you when the time comes!